Chapter 32

"Forget it, just hug me. Don't cry anymore, okay." He frowned and reached out to push her tear-soaked bangs away from her eyes. "My hair is about to fall into my eyes... Yeah."

Before he finished speaking, Naoko reached out and hugged him, burying her face in his soft belly.

His face changed, and he gritted his teeth and scolded coldly: "Aren't you being a little rude, Kawase Naoko?"

Science shows that hugs can make people feel happy, and it's true.

She calmed down, buried her head in his arms and said sullenly: "Since we are boyfriend and girlfriend, it's okay to hug a little, right? There are no other students in the classroom anyway."

This sentence touched his sore spot. He stretched out a finger and pressed it against her forehead, widening the distance between them.

"Hmm, I suddenly feel like they're very relevant."

"..."

Naoko had almost calmed down, but she felt the urge to argue again: "Hmm? Are you acting up again, Amemiya-kun?"

Amemiya stood up from her desk, took a step back, and smiled.

"All in all, I think it's best for us to keep our distance."

This guy always had his way with his ideas, and today might have been the day he got his head stuck in the door again.

"Why? You're not thinking of breaking up with me, are you?"

Naoko knew she wasn't in love with him, so as long as Amemiya stayed with her, she didn't care whether they broke up or not.

But Amemiya was very excited about this.

"How is that possible?" He unconsciously raised his voice and interrupted her firmly.

She was startled: "Don't be so startled."

"No wonder you can control Tomie Amemiya so well, you're really amazing," he complained casually, but his voice was not loud enough for Naoko to hear.

Like all Amamiyas before him, he compromised.

"Forget it, you want a hug, don't you? Just hug as much as you want."

Amamiya generously opened his arms and embraced her, embracing her like a hen.

The tiny Naoko in his arms truly looked like a chick.

He casually commented, "Why are you so small, Kawase?"

His expression was filled with disgust and reluctance, but his hands consciously wiped her tears, wiping them on her clothes. He complained,

"It's disgusting! What's there to cry about? One died anyway, and there's still..." There's still another.

There was a strange pause.

"What nonsense are you talking about again?" she muttered.

She looked so frail and pitiful that Amamiya wondered if even a little force could kill her.

The greatest danger for Tomie Amamiya was the constant fear of being killed by someone close to her.

To keep a fragile fool like Kawase Naoko alive, the Tomie Amamiyas must have put in a lot of effort.

But he wasn't like those idiots who only knew how to muddle through.

Wasn't he just trying to protect himself and Kawase?

"Oh, nothing, I was just saying, you're such an idiot."

"Hey, why do you always call me an idiot?" she retorted unhappily. "Even though my grades aren't as good as yours, they're not bad at all, okay?"

"Did I say that before? Okay, starting today, I'm going to change."

While the two were bickering, several classmates walked in. Naoko immediately took a step back as if scalded, lowered her head, and swallowed back her tears.

This earned her a cold sneer from Amemiya: "You're so useless, Kawase. Weren't you so tough just now? You're a bully, aren't you?"

"Keep your voice down, Amemiya-kun."

He seemed to have suddenly changed, getting up from her desk and walking away without even looking back.

Naoko wanted to call him back: "...Wait, where are you going?"

"What's it to you? Leave me alone."

Okay.

His cold attitude attracted the attention of others, who glanced at her with gloating eyes, trying to see expressions similar to "regret" and "panic" on her face.

In fact, Amemiya seemed to have just been strolling outside. When Naoko went out to get water with a cup of water, she happened to run into him chatting happily with a female classmate from the next class.

There was a faint smile on the corner of his lips, and it was hard to tell whether his expression was impatience or something else, but he stood there and listened to the female classmate.

When he saw Naoko, his lip lines straightened immediately, but he just glanced at her vaguely and then retracted his gaze.

He didn't react, so Naoko simply lowered her head and pretended that she didn't see anything. A cold sneer came from behind, and she didn't know if it was to express her speechlessness at her reaction.

She probably knew what Amemiya had done by strolling out.

As she walked down the hallway, she could hear her classmates' suppressed laughter of ecstasy:

"Amemiya-kun just responded to my greeting!"

"He even approached me!"

"Amemiya-kun said my hairstyle looks great today... I'll never change it again..."

"Tsk! Amemiya-kun's exact words were, 'Your hair doesn't look as stupid as the guy next to you, right?'"

...

Amemiya-kun had inexplicably come out and greeted everyone in the grade.

Naoko couldn't understand his behavior, but perhaps building good relationships with others was a good thing... After all, even if he didn't, everyone would still flock to him.

Suzuki-kun approached like a ghost, brushing past her.

His bangs were thick and long, revealing only a glimpse of a pair of shadowy eyes beneath them.

Because of what happened last semester, Naoko couldn't help but feel guilty when she saw him, and her body stiffened unconsciously.

He placed the glass of water on the water dispenser with a thud, then turned back to stare at her. His cold gaze made her shiver.

"Suzuki-kun, you go... play first, I'll be in a while..."

Just as she turned around, someone grabbed her ponytail and dragged her, causing her to stumble. But before she could even scream, she felt someone holding her forearm and pulling her into a familiar embrace.

"What are you doing here?"

Amemiya's emotionless voice boomed from above her head, addressed to Naoko, but his gaze was fixed on Suzuki-kun, who was holding her ponytail.

"Amemiya-kun, listen to my explanation... I..." Suzuki-kun quickly let go of her hand, trying to explain in a hoarse and gloomy voice like a broken gong.

"It's okay."

"I..." He was about to argue, but was startled by Amemiya's response. "Amemiya-kun, what did you say?"

"Are you deaf? Didn't I tell you it's okay?" He frowned and said impatiently, "Get out of here."

After scolding her, he dragged Naoko towards the stairwell.

"Keep your distance from me from now on, okay? Otherwise, next time you get beaten, I won't be able to save you."

This Tomie Amamiya was hot and cold, sometimes close and sometimes distant.

"I don't understand what you mean."

He walked a little closer to her, staring at her with his eyes downcast: "Don't you know? All the bad things you have encountered so far are because of Tomie Amamiya. Whether it was isolation, murder, or something else.

"If you continue to pester her, one day our poor Naoko-chan will die because Tomie Amamiya failed to protect her in time.

"If you still want to live, then stay away from me."

This was simply too unbelievable.

Although she had a vague feeling that all these bad things were related to Tomie Amamiya, how could there be such a crazy thing in the world that someone would choose to attack her as a girlfriend just because her boyfriend was Tomie Amamiya?

Even if... even if she secretly felt that his suitor was a little too crazy.

However, even if this was true, didn't there still exist a police officer?

"Starting today?"

A hint of suppressed displeasure crossed Amemiya's face. He was probably in that delicate state of "I can suggest keeping my distance from you, but if you actually agree, I'll immediately show you my wrath."

Naoko had to offer an excuse, "I understand what you mean, Amemiya-kun. But dinner's almost time, so I'd better..."

"Take your lunch upstairs, and I'll come back to you in five minutes." He wouldn't brook any refusal.

Okay, it was just playing house.

After waiting on the rooftop for six or seven minutes, Amemiya finally came up stealthily and sat down on a small stool a few steps away.

"Amemiya-kun, won't you come sit at the table and eat?"

He simply said, "Keep your distance."

"..."

Was that really necessary?

Naoko habitually pushed her lunchbox toward him, but he coldly stopped her, "Can't we each have our own portions?"

She withdrew her hand in frustration, but with each bite, she would look up at him silently.

Finally, he couldn't stand it anymore and glared at her fiercely: "What are you looking at?"

"There are potatoes in the lunch box that my mother prepared today, and I don't like it."

The two of them confronted each other for a long time, and in the end, Amamiya was the first to give in: "This is just this time, there won't be a next time."

As he said that, he pulled out the chair opposite her and sat down, put his lunch box in front of her, and took the one in her hand .

"But Amamiya-kun, I already..."

She wanted to say that she had already eaten this lunch box, and it didn't matter if she didn't change it, but he had already taken a bite with a normal expression .

Well, since Master Amamiya doesn't mind.

He probably felt that this kind of cover-up to keep distance was of little use.

The next day, he simply rejected Naoko's suggestion to eat on the rooftop.

"Kawase, you've grown up. You don't need Amamiya Tomie to always follow you around and take care of you. You can eat by yourself, right?"

Don't make it sound like she can't live without him!

"Besides, I've already made an appointment with the others to have lunch together." As soon as he finished speaking, more than a dozen classmates raised their heads one after another, their cold gazes falling on her face.

"Kawase, you also think we should make more friends, right?"

So Naoko spent her first lunch in her life, the first time she was at school but without Amamiya.

However, after a day, her classmates' attitude towards her changed 180 degrees.